The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

I've been thinking for a while that NextStage should do an analysis of Senator and actor Fred Thompson's campaign site. What's been stopping me is that he's not officially announced he's running for President and he doesn't actually have an official campaign site that I know of (remember, I'm remarkably out of the loop on politics). The reason I decided to run an analysis is because I'd heard he was going to make his official announcement sometime this coming week.

I went to VoteSmart.org because they list official campaign sites and found I'mWithFred listed as his official site, so I was off and at it.

Here is Senator and actor Fred Thompson's official campaign site homepage as it appears today, 1 Sept 07. We analyzed it using NextStage's TargetTrack tool, as we do with all such things.

What got me right off the bat is that this homepage uses a V8 Rich Persona. This got my attention because way back in Feb '07 we analyzed Governor Mitt Romney's campaign website and found it had a V7 Rich Persona. One of the most obvious differences between the two is that Governor Romney's messaging was originally designed for individuals who "...like to talk things over with a knowledgeable person who needs to point out the negative aspects of a decision in order to be taken seriously." Senator Thompson's messaging is designed for individuals who "...like to talk things over with an authority figure (real or imagined) who needs to point out the positive aspects of a decision in order to be taken seriously.

This difference is telling in how these two campaigns perceive who their candidate is and what that candidate's strengths are on a personal (hence "Persona" level).

First, I do note that Governor Romney has changed his messaging style since Feb '07. With that in mind, Governor Romney originally wanted people to perceive him as someone who could show them the error of their ways and set them on the right path. Senator Thompson is using a very different psychological strategy to gain voters; he wants people to see him as an an experienced person who can help them achieve more.

In more obvious terms it would be phrased this way; Governor Romney was saying to voters, "You're doing it wrong, do it my way. It's better." while Senator Thompson's message is "You're doing a good job. Let me show you something that might help you out."

We'll be watching to see if Senator Thompson's messaging changes once he officially starts his campaign.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Links for this post:

• BizMediaScience Political Blog posts
• Intelligent Website Design: Expand Your Market
• Mapping Personae to Outcomes
• NextStage's Personae Mapping Tool
• Predicting Election Outcomes Via NextStage's TargetTrack
• Working with Prediction Markets via NextStage's Evolution Technology

• IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
• XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
• DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
• Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.